File:Brehm's Life of animals - a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia (1896) (19790850914).jpg

Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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316 THE RODENTS OR GNAWING ANIMALS. prettier head. Its fur consists of loose, rather wiry hair; the upper surface is yellowish gray, diversified with irregular waves of russet yellow and small spots; the under parts are reddish yellow, and the chin and throat are white. The Souslik is mainly found in the east of Europe, its range taking in the northern provinces of the Austro-Hungarian empire and all of southern and temperate Russia. In most localities where the Souslik is found it is common, and is occasionally perceptibly prejudicial to agriculture. It selects dry, treeless localities as its haunts; preferring above all others firm sand or clay ground, which is princi- pally fields and grassy plains. According to Herk- lotz, it has recently paid special attention to rail- ways, the embankments of which facilitate digging and afford a certain shelter from rain showers. The Souslik always lives gregariously, but every animal savory flesh, and he hunts them with nooses, catches them in traps, digs them out or drives them out of their burrows, flooding their retreats with water, and in other ways. In this way the propagation of the Souslik is checked. Various Soecies of °f the sPermoPhiles proper there are sev- AmericaTsPerf «al. species inhabiting North America mophiles. the high north is found the species nearest to the Souslik. It is known as Parry's Mar- mot Squirrel (Spcrmophilus empetra). In Illinois, Indiana and south to Kansas, north to Dakota and into Canada, is the species variously known as the Gray Prairie Squirrel and the Gray Gopher (Spcnnophilus franklini). Another is the Thirteen- lined Spermophile, sometimes called "Stars and Stripes' (Spermophilus tridecum-lineatus) which has on its dark red- dish brown back and sides rows of light spots alternating with from six to eight black, longitudinal stripes. It is found in the eastern states. There are other local varieties in California and Mexico. Their life resembles that of the Souslik, the northern varieties laying up large stores of provisions for the winter, while those further south do not find so large a stock
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PRAIRIE DOGS. These animals are familiar to all who have lived in or visited the western plains of the United States, or the elevated table-lands of New Mexico. The picture shows these cheerful, harmless little creatures engaged in eating grass or amusing themselves, and brings out the characteristics of the animals—the stout body, the large head, the alert, watchful eyes and the small ears. (Cynomys ludovicianus.) digs its own individual burrow, the male a shallow one, the female a deeper retreat. Food and Tender herbs and roots, cereals, Foes of the beans and peas, various berries and Souslik. vegetables form the usual food of the Souslik. Towards autumn it gathers provisions, which it carries home in its cheek pouches, Hamster fashion. Besides this the Souslik is a dangerous foe to Mice and birds having their nests on the ground, for it not only plunders the nests, but also attacks the animals themselves, if they are not wary. The devastation a Souslik perpetrates by its plun- derings is noticeable only in places where the ani- mal is numerous. Ermines, Weasels, Polecats and Martens, Falcons, Crows, Herons, Bustards, even i it i, Terriers and other well-known exterminators of Rodents, zealously pursue the Souslik. The Bus- tard shows great zeal and skill in pursuit, killing the animal with one blow of its beak and eating it, skin and all. Man also pursues the Sousliks, partly on account of their skins, partly on account of their necessary, for the reason that their seclusion is of shorter duration. The Prairie Dogs' The Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicia- Leading Char- ?ms), living in North America, is in a acteristics. certain sense a connecting link be- tween the Spermophiles and the true Marmots; for though, properly speaking, it belongs to the former, it more resembles the latter. The body is stout, the head large, the tail short and bushy, the hair of equal length above and on the sides; the cheek pouches are of inferior development. Adult Prairie Dogs attain a total length of about sixteen inches, not quite three inches of which belong to the tail. The coloring of the upper parts is light reddish brown, mixed with blackish gray; the under surface is ding)' white and the tip of the short tail shows brown rings. The appellation of "Prairie Dog," which has been adopted more and more generally, derived, its origin from the first discoverers, the old Canadian trappers or hunters who gave the little animal the name on

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